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WORDS OF JESUS:
"Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."
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(Luke 23:34 NRSV)
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FOLLOWER - IV (Mary, Jesus' mother):
What agony I felt as I heard my own Son speak those words. How
could He utter words of forgiveness as His brutally beaten body was
nailed to that rough wooden cross? A part of me wanted to run away in
horror; yet, I could not, I would not move from my place in front of the
cross. I was His mother and I would be there until all was finished.
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As I stood there for hours, watching Him suffer, I remembered many
things. I remembered an angel saying, "Name Him Jesus, for He will
save His people from their sins." I remembered a very old man in the
temple, who took the infant Jesus from my arms, and prayed, "With my
own eyes I have now seen the salvation of my people." And, I
remembered my twelve-year-old Boy telling Joseph and me that He had
come to do His Father's workâthe work of forgiveness.
There, in front of me, on a cross of shame, hung my Son, my sweet
Lamb, enduring the most cruel death to forgive the sins of the world.
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